Equality is equality is equality

Last night I heard esteemed feminist legal scholar Catherine MacKinnon (she is almost single-handedly responsible for making sexual harassment in the workplace an issue of sex discrimination--a civil rights issue) discuss a new topic that she is working on, namely the connection between heterosexism (the dominance and privilege of straight, heterosexual people in our society) and sexism (the dominance and privilege of men in our society). I can't summarize or re-create the brilliant but dizzying talk that MacKinnon gave, that literally had me on the edge of my seat at times, because the implications, for us as a society, is truly astounding--simultaneously radical yet simple and obvious: we are all equal. Or rather, we SHOULD all be equal, regardless of what we look like, what sex organs we were born with, or who we choose to love.

And then a friend sent me this link to the Courage Campaign, a progressive organization which is gathering signatures to combat a law suit that Ken Starr (yep, THAT Ken Starr) has brought in the wake of the passage of Prop 8 that would nullify the 18,000 same-sex marriages that took place in California over the last year.

Please take a minute and watch this video below--from the minute the first photo appeared, I had tears streaming down my face. The video below presents a picture of mixed-race America and presents a picture of people who simply want to live their lives--they want to be free to love the person they have chosen to love.


"Fidelity": Don't Divorce... from Courage Campaign on Vimeo.

If those of us living in the U.S. believe in the tenets of FREEDOM and INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS, then shouldn't we ALL be signing this petition and advocating on behalf of all Americans to be FREE to choose the INDIVIDUAL that they have the RIGHT to marry?

Please consider signing the Courage Campaign's petition. And please consider talking to your friends and colleagues and families about this issue. Because equality is equality is equality. This isn't a gay issue or a marriage issue. This is a civil rights, a HUMAN rights issue.